Category: Life in Ottawa

Ho! Ho! Ho!-ray for Holiday Parades: the 2013 edition!

Edited to add: Click this link for the 2018 Santa Claus and holiday parade info!

Welcome to one of my favourite holiday traditions, the 8th (!!) annual round-up of Christmas, Holiday and Santa Claus parades for Ottawa and Eastern Ontario! Wheeee!

It’s another busy year for holiday parades – apparently it’s not just on Christmas Eve that Santa needs his magical reindeer power to zip his way around to meet all the excited girls and boys! The parades seem to have inched back a week closer to Christmas, but the only significant jump in date is the Barrhaven parade. Here’s the 2013 Santa Claus parade line-up, in chronological order:

Photo of Santa Claus at the Christmas parade 2013

Continue reading “Ho! Ho! Ho!-ray for Holiday Parades: the 2013 edition!”

Target arrives in Ottawa at last!

I had only been to Target once. We’d heard so much about the store that we took a special detour to visit one on a trip through Maine back in 2007. I have friends who raved about their love of Target, though, and was as excited as anyone to see what they might bring to Ottawa’s retail landscape.

This week, the lovely peeps at Billings Bridge offered an exclusive sneak peek for bloggers, and I was hugely disappointed to realize that their special “blogger breakfast” would happen at the exact time I was scheduled to be dropping Bella off at the spay/neuter clinic (a post for another day). And I was delighted when they said, “No problem, drop by any time on opening day and we’ll leave a gift card out for you to enjoy your day shopping with us.” Lovely, eh?

So that’s how I found myself battling the crowds just a few hours after the new Target store in Billings Bridge threw open its doors to the public. The very first thing that impressed me was how orderly everything was. Though it was clearly full (the jammed parking lot was a testament to that) the store did not have that chaotically crowded feel, and smiling staff members were everywhere offering cheerful assistance. Maybe I’m just sentimental for the old Zellers, but I really do think they retained just the right amount of Zellers’ feel, but just a little bit more organized and upscale. It’s pretty much what I always wanted Zellers to be!

I had two goals in mind. Simon needed new indoor shoes and Lucas needed a new spring jacket. I found both within a few minutes of looking. Props to Target for having a decent selection of boy fashion, by the way! Goal achieved, I took a more leisurely browse, and look what I found!

Starbucks + Target = Love 🙂

It’s been fun watching friends post their about their first visit to Target this week, although I’m clearly out of the fashion loop as most of the lines and brands people are raving about are pretty much Greek to me. I can tell you that I was delighted to see a whole section of my old 80s favourite, Beaver Canoe, and I may need a Beaver Canoe wool toggle coat for the fall. I think Target will become a new go-to place for home decoration, too. There was a multi-coloured loop chenille rug in the kids’ section that I was just barely able to leave behind.

Speaking of great shopping, have you been to Billings Bridge lately? I worked at the tax centre nearby for years a lifetime ago, but haven’t been lately. They’ve got some great shops in there, including my new favourite shoe store, The Shoe Company. I really enjoyed Target, but I have to tell you I was way more excited about the deals I found there on my trip to Billings Bridge! Shoes for Tristan and me and winter boots for Lucas all for just over $100. Score!

Were you anxiously awaiting the arrival of Target? Have you had a chance to check them out yet? What did you think and more important, what did you get??

Disclosure: Billings Bridge gave me a Target gift card to enjoy during my visit to the store. However, you know that opinions on this blog are always my own.

Too close to home

For nearly seven years, I rode the bus from Barrhaven downtown and back again. Perhaps one thousand times, I sailed through the spot where the transitway crosses the tracks. Yesterday, most of you know, six people were killed and dozens more injured when an OC Transpo bus crashed into a Via train rolling into Fallowfield station.

I wasn’t sure I should write about this. I am wary of co-opting this tragedy. Because I lost nobody close to me, perhaps one could argue that there’s no value in me posting this.

I can’t stop thinking about it, though. I can’t stop thinking of six families reeling, six people who went off to work or school or their daily errands, six people who will never come home again. Those people were my neighbours when I lived in Barrhaven. Maybe I stood behind them in the line at Loblaws, or perhaps our kids went to school together. It’s hard to wrap your head around something like this in any event, but harder still when it hits the heart of your community.

I was excited when they introduced the double-decker buses. There was often one on my route, the 77 express. I always hoped to get that seat at the front in the upper row, because I loved the view. That’s where I was sitting when I took this picture in September 2009.

226:365 Sunrise at the crossing

We were sailing through that very spot where the transitway crosses the tracks just outside the Fallowfield station. The sun was just coming up. It was just an ordinary, beautiful day.

This week in pictures: In which summer abruptly gives way to autumn

Hey, hi! Remember how I used to write posts for this blog? Ya, those were good days, eh? Two blog posts in two weeks – oy, the transition from summer to fall has been brutal, both from a weather perspective and from an activities one. I feel like I’ve run headlong through the last two weeks with barely time to breathe, let alone write blog posts. But, ahem, there’s ALWAYS time for photographs!

My last photo post documented our delightful last week of summer, so it only seems right I lead off with this, the boys’ first day of school. Sigh, so grown up! This is the last year they’ll all be at the same school together.

back to school portrait of three brothers

It’s still officially summer on the calendar, but even nature seems to think it’s fall. Doesn’t this have a distinctly autumn feel?

Twig and berries

Nothing says autumn like an afternoon in the orchard! This year, for our annual apple picking trek we opted for the path of least resistance, with the closest and least busy orchard we know, which also happens to be a perfectly lovely place to pick apples: the Log Cabin Orchard outside of Osgoode.

family photographs in the apple orchard Ottawa

family photographs in the apple orchard Ottawa

family photographs in the apple orchard Ottawa

Apple picking 2013

They stopped long enough to let me get a few quick portraits. Because, yanno, I hardly have *any* photos of my lovelies! 😉

outdoor portraits of brothers in a tree

And then I milked the orchard shots for a few days of “photos of the day,” playing with photoshop and textures.

Ladder in the orchard

Apple photograph

And what else does September bring? Activities, of course. Each spring I enroll the boys in swim lessons, and each boy also gets at least one year of skating lessons. I’ve had just enough of a buffer from Tristan and Simon’s lessons a few years back to actually be looking forward to Lucas’s first lesson. He was a trooper – up on his feet and gliding during his first lesson. And falling, of course. There was a cringe-worthy amount of falling, but the smile on his face never faltered.

photo of little boy skating lesson hockey gear

Amidst the craziness of early September, I managed to slip out to Toronto and back for a very quick but wonderful visit with my friends at Fisher-Price and Mom Central Canada. I’ll have more about that grand adventure soon, but for now here’s one of my favourite photos from the trip, the view of the Toronto skyline from the ferry between Toronto’s island airport and the mainland.

Toronto the good

And finally, one of my very favourite parts of autumn is that it is a SPECTACULAR time for family portraits. Saturday, I was honoured to take a second year of portraits for this lovely family. We had a little wander through some gardens, across a bridge, and around an old barn, stopping for a wee picnic snack along the way. My favourite kind of photography session – just watching and photographing a happy family at play. I’ll have lots more from this fun session soon, but here’s the sneak peek:

portrait by Ottawa family photographer Danielle Donders

Aren’t they adorable?

I have just a few openings for autumn family portrait sessions this fall in Ottawa, as life is pretty darn busy and I try not to schedule more than one session each week. If you’re interested in either a porch portraits mini-session out here in Manotick or maybe a full portrait session with the colourful leaves and delicious autumn light (can you tell I love autumn portraits?), please get in touch soon! I’d love to work with you and your family to capture these moments – they’ll be gone as quick as the apples disappear from the orchard!

The Art of the Sunflower Fundraising Auction

I have been telling this story in bits and pieces on the blog, on Flickr, on Facebook and even on the radio for weeks now, but I’m finally ready to share the whole thing with you!

The story begins way back in the cold heart of winter. I was listening to CBC radio, and they were interviewing a fellow who had a little farm out in Frankville, the other side of Smiths Falls called Kricklewood Farm. He was talking about the goats they raise, the soap they make from the goat milk, and the pressed sunflower oil they make from their sunflower farm. Hmmm, I thought, a sunflower farm. Taking photos at a sunflower farm has been on my photographer’s bucket list for ages.

Fast forward to this August when I knew the sunflowers would start to be in bloom. I toyed with the idea of just surreptitiously driving out to the farm and creeping around indiscreetly with my camera, but I figured the best approach would be to ask for permission, so I sent off a little e-mail and hoped for the best.

Imagine my delight when I got an e-mail back promptly, telling me that was I welcome to come out to Kricklewood Farm, but that they had a proposition for me. They wanted to put together a fundraiser to support The Table community food centre in Perth. Artists were encouraged to come out to the sunflower field, but asked to donate one version of the resulting work of art to the fundraising auction.

How awesome is that? Sunflower photos, a fundraising auction and a healthy supply of good karma? How could I possibly resist? And that’s how this happened to come about!

Photographer Danielle Donders participates in Art-of-the-Sunflower auction

I’m so pleased to be a part of this! I was even on CBC radio’s All in a Day last week talking about it with Dale of Kricklewood Farm. It sounds like there will be photographs, paintings, and even a stained glass window up for auction. I can’t wait to go check it out.

And in case you’re curious, this is the work I’ve donated to the auction. I brought my Nikon and took over 100 photos, but the one that spoke to me the most was one I caught with my iPhone and Instagram.

Good morning sunshine!

I love how it came out on a canvas. Special thanks to Ottawa’s own CanvasPop who always do an amazing job and were kind enough to offer a discount on the canvas since it was for a charitable event.

If you’re looking for something to do next Sunday, it’s a gorgeous drive out to the Herb Garden outside of Almonte for the exhibit and auction and it’s for an excellent cause!

Hope to see you there!!

Family movie night under the stars

The very same week we were having our new treehouse built, the fine folks at Epson sent an e-mail out of the blue wondering if I’d like to test drive a neat new home theatre projector. I immediately imagined a big white bedsheet tacked to the treehouse, friends and neighbours gathered ’round on lawnchairs on a warm summer night, crickets chirping and kids sitting on blankets munching popcorn under the stars. It was the vision of a perfect summer night – and for once in my life, that’s exactly how it played out!

A backyard movie night and tree-house-warming party for just our family and my visiting brother’s family would have been awesome on its own, but I thought it would be a great way for us to get to know our neighbours a little better. Although there are quite a few kids similar in age to the boys on our street, they go to a different school and it drives me a little crazy that even though I know the adults well enough to say hi and chat, the kids on the street don’t know each other like they did when we were kids. Movie night seemed like a great icebreaker. To round out the crowd, we invited a few of the families of the boys’ friends from school and a few family friends, too. I’d say we had probably a dozen or 15 adults and maybe 20 kids. Way too many people for the inside of my house, but perfect for the sprawling yard!

We had room for kids to run and play, for a picnic dinner for some early arrivals, space to set up the projector, and more than enough space for a campfire and marshmallows. And, as it turned out, roasted gummy spiders. (Not part of my original vision, I must admit.)

photo of kids roasting marshmallows

The projector itself is way cool and dead easy to use. It’s the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 750HD and it is truly plug and play. We could have plugged it in to our BluRay player, or even the Wii console, to watch the movie that way, but we decided to plug it in to my Macbook so we’d also have access to iTunes while we were waiting for it to get dark. An HDMI cable and an extension cord and we were good to go! Here’s how Epson describes this fun home theatre projector on their site:

Get ready for a standing ovation from family and friends when you share brilliant 2D and 3D entertainment using the Home Cinema 750HD projector. Transform the game room, garage or even your backyard into an incredible big-screen experience — all at an affordable price. 3000 lumens of colour brightness and 3000 lumens of white brightness1 and 720p resolution ensure images are bright, sharp and clear. Quick and easy HDMI connectivity lets you jump into the middle of any 2D or 3D adventure, from movies to live sporting events and even video games. Get the total package with rechargeable RF 3D glasses and an internal speaker — all included, so you’re ready for larger-than-life, immersive, 3D adventures — anytime. Epson’s exclusive 3LCD technology delivers rich, vivid images up to 300 inches — perfect for projecting on a blank wall or portable screen.

(imagine a photo of the projector plugged in to my computer sitting on our old diaper table out in the middle of the yard here. I forgot to take that photo!)

The forecast for Friday had been perfect, then sketchy with a 40% chance of thunderstorms, but if there’s anything the summer of 2013 has taught me, it’s to ignore the forecast entirely. As it turned out, the night was clear and perfect and the only real problem was the skeeters.

I was worried we’d have to wait until full dark to be able to see anything. (We saw the original Batman at the drive-in back in 1989 or so, and I remember not being able to see anything for the first half of the movie because it’s such a dim movie to begin with, and in the ambient light of the setting sun, we couldn’t make out any of the details.) I was really impressed at the power and clarity of the Epson projector, though. It was just as the sun was setting that we started up the movie, and it was crystal clear.

outdoor photo of families watching a movie in backyard

Of course, the effect was better as we approached full dark. Look how crisp the image on the screen is! I was so impressed!

outdoor photo of families watching a movie in backyard

We didn’t get the chance to try out the 3D mode yet, but we’ll still have the projector for a few days before we have to return it, so we may have to try that out tonight. Beloved is completely in love with it. He leaned over to me half way through the movie and said, “We so need one of these. I want to watch all my favourite TV shows like this!” I laughed imagining Survivor and Survivorman projected on the treehouse, but I think what he had in mind was setting it up on a shelf over the bed and projecting the full size of the bedroom wall!

(I was seriously tempted to look into purchasing one when we turned off the movie — remember, we were using my Macbook to play the DVD — and the photo I’d been editing earlier in Photoshop appeared on the projection screen. Photo editing on a four foot by six foot screen? Hells yes!!)

Thanks to the kind folks at Epson for letting us borrow this amazing projector. Thanks, too, to MediaProfile, who arranged the loan of the projector and threw in a complimentary copy of Hotel Transylvania courtesy of Sony Entertainment as well. It’s a charming movie and the kids seemed to enjoy it almost as much as the grownups did! (Yes I’m looking at you, Julie!)

Everyone agreed it was a great night. Huh, lookit that — some of my crazy schemes actually play out exactly as I imagined them. Who would have guessed it?

Summer staycation: Choose a direction for a fun family day trip from Ottawa

No big vacation plans for you this summer? No problem! Whether you want to go north, south, east or west, here’s four suggestions for great little family-friendly day trips that you can take from Ottawa. A change is as good as a rest, right?

1. North to Wakefield, Quebec

We discovered Wakefield on my birthday last summer. It’s about an hour’s drive from our place, but probably less than half an hour from downtown. The scenic drive up Autoroute 5 is straight off the King Edward bridge and easy to find, and the drive is lovely! The red covered bridge for which Wakefield is known is a wee drive outside the village core and a bit too far to walk, but worth the extra effort.

Wakefield

If you go, don’t miss the covered bridge, the bakery, the candy store, the eclectic little shops, the great little restaurants (we liked Kaffe 1870) and the old-fashioned round-about for the old steam train (which I hear will be running again in 2014!)

2. West to Almonte, Ontario

Our trip to Almonte last year was a Mother’s Day present to me. (Do you sense a theme here? Oh yes, I will totally play the mom card to coerce the kids into tolerating a road trip on my behalf!) Almonte is a picturesque little town maybe 45 minutes due west of here. You can get there off the 417, but I prefer the back roads that march through farm and forest as the Canadian Shield fights the Ottawa Valley for dominance.

We were antiquing in Almonte and found lots of cute little shops in which to browse. My favourite by far, though, was my main reason for wanting to go: the Tin Barn Market. It’s a good thing this little shop is a two-hour round-trip drive from Manotick or I swear I would have no money left for groceries each week. They have the most amazing selection of eclectic used, repurposed and vintage things you could ever imagine. We also checked out the Almonte Flea Market, looking for a replacement for our old favourite the Antrim Flea Market, which ceased operations in 2011. It was still early in the season when we visited, but there were a good number of vendors with interesting items there.

Mother's Day in Almonte

If vintage and repurposed isn’t your thing, you’ll still likely enjoy a walk along Almonte’s river walk, where you can see some of the textile mills that contributed to the founding of the town. It’s a lovely walk in any season! And if you’re in the mood for a truly gorgeous scene, just zip another 15 minutes along the Mississippi River to Pakenham, where you can see the old five-arch stone bridge.

One autumn day in Pakenham

3. East to Lachute, Quebec

You might have sensed a theme here. We love flea markets. LOVE them. I don’t even need to buy a lot of stuff, I am just completely fascinated by the browsing. But the buying is fun, too, and the boys like the treasure-hunting aspect of perusing a good flea market. It’s a bit of a surprise, then, that before this year we’d never made the two-hour trek out to Lachute, Quebec for the Lachute Farmers Market, the “largest flea market in Western Quebec.” (We knew we had to go when we saw it featured on Canadian Pickers last year!)

It was a zoo, the biggest, craziest, busiest flea market we’ve ever seen. We had to wait in traffic for 10 minutes just to get near enough to park, and people were parking *everywhere*. It turns out that the day we went (it runs Sunday and Tuesday, but Tuesday is the bigger day) was during Quebec’s annual construction holiday, so that may have been a bit of a tactical error on our part. But crowds aside, I have never seen a flea market like this – they had the usual grey-market knock-off stuff, but rows and rows of it, so much that we couldn’t at first find the vintage stuff we were looking for. (You know it’s a big flea market when you can’t get oriented and wish you had a map!) They had live music, a little restaurant, stupidly long lineups for the washrooms, pony rides and even livestock among the trash and treasures for sale.

Flea market

I seriously regret not buying the old wooden spindles I saw ($4 each) and the vintage tin spinning top ($20). And I wish we’d had more time to take in this advice I got in reply to my tweet about the madness of the flea market, but it was just too crowded to linger and we didn’t want to leave Bella in her crate too late.

Next time we go, we will head out much earlier. By noon many of the vintage and antiques sellers were already packing up their tables. If you love flea markets with a festival flavour, you’ll love Lachute!

4. South to Morrisburg and Upper Canada Village
At least once a year, we make our way down Highway 31 (otherwise known as Bank Street) past Metcalfe, through Vernon and Williamsburg (be sure to admire the crumbling beauty of the Picadilly Theatre on your way by!) and then down Highway 2 to Upper Canada Village. Just before you get to the 401, if you’re out on a Sunday it’s well worth a gander to poke around McHaffie’s flea market since you’re out there. (Big, but not as crazy as Lachute, and well worth the drive!)

Here’s our trip to Upper Canada Village back in 2010, which conveniently coincided with a civil war re-enactment. (Taken through the viewfinder of an old Duaflex twin-lens reflex camera. Remember when I was obsessed with TtV?)

521:1000 Back in the day, TTV

Aside from Upper Canada Village, which is always an adventure in itself, you can hop on the wee train out front and extend your trip to Crysler Beach. And one of these days we’ll get around to checking out Prehistoric World, now that Lucas is in a dinosaur phase.

So there’s a day trip worth of adventure on every point of the compass from Ottawa. Stay tuned, I have a new one to share with you soon!

What’s your favourite day trip?

This week in pictures: A long and rambly catch-up post (part one of two)

Oops! Didn’t I used to post a weekly post with all the photos of the day? I got a little sporadic with the daily photos around the end of June and although I’ve been posting most days, I kind of forgot to do these posts. We’ve been having too much fun for me to get it all down on the blog! Okay, here’s one of two posts to catch up the photos from July you haven’t seen yet, and a story or two (ahem) to go with them.

This is my friend Todd teaching Tristan how to do a backflip off the diving board. I love this photo for several reasons. On a technical level, I love it because I love the tension in the photo, how you can almost feel how coiled Tristan is. It’s also the first day he mastered backflips! I remember trying to master flips off my friend’s diving board through most of my 17th summer and being woefully unable.

Backflip!

Todd and I have been friends for SO long that he is more like a brother to me, and I trust him like a brother. When each of the boys have been wee and just learning how to swim, Todd has convinced me to let them jump off the diving board in his pool (it was a lot harder to convince me with Tristan than with Lucas!) and either sink or swim to the ladder while Todd supervised in the deep end. Dads, even when they’re not your dad, are so much better at encouraging learning through risky activities, aren’t they? That’s how Lucas went from diving to backflips (with a helping hand) all in the same sweaty July afternoon. (Also my first Vine post!)

No story here, just purty!

I heart coneflowers!

No story here either, just cute! A boy, his dog and his DS. It was a “pick up the camera and hope they don’t notice you or move before it’s too late” kind of moment.

Lazy day

So this is a fun story that also needs a bit of background. I’ve been following Ottawa photographer Tony Fouhse ever since I got serious about taking pictures three or four years ago. He’s probably best known for his street photography, especially his USER and Live Through This projects. I find his work fascinating and I think it’s neat that such a creative mind prowls the same streets that I do. That’s what makes his latest project, “Official Ottawa”, so compelling to me. You know I love to try to express my love for Ottawa through my photos, and I think they’re mostly a love letter to the city. Tony is quoted in the New York Times’ Lens Blog (see, he really is a big deal!) as saying, “Most Canadians, when they think of Ottawa, they think of the Peace Tower or skating on the canal, or talking heads standing in front of the Parliament buildings. I think maybe by trying to keep things plain and simple, what I’m trying to do is strip it down and show the bones of the thing, rather than all the hype and the myth and the fairy tale that people usually project into this city.” Neat, eh?

So when I saw that Tony was looking for “civil servants” to photograph for the project, I was immediately intrigued. The word “subversive” came up in our e-mail exchange, and I knew I wanted to be a part of his project, but I was very nervous. I mean, doing social media for the federal government is already just a little bit subversive, right? But when Tony said yes, he would like to take my portrait, I was immediately overcome with doubt. I am not a typical civil servant. I don’t think. I mean, what is a typical civil servant? And how do I dress like one for the photo? In the end, I tried not to overthink it too much, although on top of the “how do I properly *look* like a civil servant” conundrum, I was also just a wee bit nervous about meeting Tony. If you read his blog you know he doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and I was somehow anxious that I had misrepresented myself in my e-mail. (I know, I know. My inner and deeply insecure 14 year old is never far from the surface.) All that to say, I fretted for nothing because it turns out Tony is the. nicest. photographer. ever. He and I chatted for maybe 15 or 20 minutes, he posed me where he wanted me and took exactly two photographs, and we were done.

One of the reasons he only took two photographs is because he was using a gorgeous medium format camera that, in Tony’s words, costs $7 every time you click the shutter. You can see the negative in his hand. So cool!

What fun to meet and be fotographed by amazing Ottawa fotographer @tonyfouhse - incredibly nice guy and not scary at all!! :)

And here’s how my portrait came out. He sent me a scan of the photo itself, but I love it more in context with the other portraits he’s taken for this part of his Official Ottawa project. Here’s the chief of police, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, Jeffrey Simpson (national affairs columnist with the Globe and Mail), a tour guide with the NCC and me doing my best civil servant impression. 🙂

Photos by Tony Fouhse
Photos by and © Tony Fouhse

I can’t help but contrast my experience with Tony against the encounter I had with another prominent Ottawa photographer last year. You might remember he called me a “mamarazzi” and “an icon of the ill direction towards which I believe photography may well be headed.” (Seriously!) And here you have Tony, an entirely better class of photographer and human being, who was not only patient with me pointing my iPhone at him, but treated me like an equal and spoke to me with simple respect as I scrambled hard to talk to him about photography without sounding like an idiot.

And finally (phew!) a few quick photos from our trip to Toronto last week. We started at the Ontario Science Centre to bring the kids to the Game On 2.0 exhibit. It was, to be honest, a bit of a reminder of just how awesome our Ottawa museums are and how lucky we are to have them. But did you know that if you’re a member of the Agriculture/Science and Tech/Aviation museum here, you get into the Ontario Science Centre for FREE? That saved us $80!! And teaching the kids to play Pac Man and Space Invaders did make for a fun afternoon!

Game On 2.0 at the Ontario Science Centre

The next day we headed to Canada’s Wonderland. I hadn’t been since I was a teenager (1987, to be exact!) and we’d been meaning to take the kids for a while. We had the BEST day!! Number of roller coasters I expected to ride? Zero. Number of roller coasters I actually rode? SIX! My brother and I started the day on the Leviathan, and after my knees stopped shaking I was suddenly back in touch with my long-dormant inner adrenaline junkie. Even the boys, who don’t particularly like rides, got into the act.

You know what else was amazing? I actually forgot my camera in the hotel room — and it was so liberating!! I took photos with my iPhone all day and didn’t have to worry about hauling my Nikon around everywhere. Here’s some of my favourite shots.

Canada's Wonderland 2013

And finally (did you think this post would never end?) on the way home the next day we stopped for lunch and a wander in Ganonoque. I love the timelessness of small-town Ontario!

Downtown Gananoque

So that’s four or five blog posts I’ve been meaning to write crammed all into one. Can you see why I’ve been too busy to blog lately? And that’s just the FIRST week of my summer vacation – I’ll try to catch up with another photo post in a day or two.

What have YOU been up to this summer?

Ottawa family fun GIVEAWAY! Hidden Life of Ants at the Nature Museum

Can you tell it’s summer? The blog is all family fun all the time these days. And today, I get the opportunity to share the fun with YOU!

Have you been to the Museum of Nature lately? I’ve always been fond of it, but it’s been a good couple of years since we dropped by. I have to say, we have never loved it more! It was the epitome of “something for everyone.”

Lucas is newly enamoured with dinosaurs, so I knew he’d enjoy the dinosaur exhibit. Even though I’ve seen it several times, there’s something magical about watching your five-year-old light up like a Christmas tree, eyes wide with wonder and literally jumping up and down with excitement over every single skeleton. You can imagine how cute it was when we made it to the actual dinosaurs – in fact, you don’t have to imagine it at all. How cute is this?

IMG_3988

So I knew that would go over well. What I didn’t expect was how utterly engaged all five of us would be by the Earth Gallery. Tristan and Simon are Minecraft junkies (if you have a boy of a certain age, you know what I mean) and they’re fascinated by rocks, gems and mining. I had never been in this gallery before and even though I don’t play Minecraft, I’ve always been intrigued by geology and I found it really interesting. And I always love the Mammal Gallery with its realistic dioramas of Canadian wildlife.

We were creeping up on lunchtime by the time we’d carefully inspected each exhibit in each of those three galleries, so we decided to forgo the RBC Blue Water Gallery and head straight to the main event, the special Hidden Life of Ants exhibit.

Ants are everywhere. Though small in size, they form complex societies and dominate their ecosystems as much as humans do. Farmers, Warriors, Builders: The Hidden Life of Ants is an exhibition of 39 large-scale photos by award-winning photographer Mark W. Moffet. Visitors will also see two live colonies of harvester ants and honeypot ants, a three-dimensional aluminum cast of an ant nest and a touchable oversized ant model. You will have a whole new appreciation for ants after seeing this impressive show! This travelling exhibition is organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

I’m mildly bug phobic, but that has never really extended to ants, maybe because they’re so ubiquitous. (Unless they have wings. The ones with wings freak me out.) I found this exhibit engaging on a couple of levels – first, because the ants themselves are interesting. Second, because the photos really are spectacular. I mean, who wouldn’t love ants blown up to over a meter in size?

"Hey boys, pretend the giant ants are attacking you!"

(“Hey boys! Stand over here and pretend the giant ants are attacking you!”)(They’re so patient with me. I love them so!)

I found out from the exhibit curator on Twitter that although the photography part of the Hidden Life of Ants exhibit is only temporary, the ants belong to the museum and will be a permanent feature. I don’t know whether I’m more tickled by the serendipitous connections I make through Twitter or how clearly excited the curator was to share this news. I tell ya, I now know way more than I ever expected to know about ants. And dinosaurs.

Ahem, anyway, this was a terrific half day out and we followed it up with lunch in the Byward Market to round out a full day downtown. And now I get to share the joy! Would you like to attend the exhibit? The Hidden Life of Ants runs until January 5, 2014 at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and I have a family pass to give away! If you would like to enter this giveaway, just leave a comment on this post telling me whether you think ants are creepy or cool.

Here’s the fine print:

  1. This is a giveaway for a family pass comprising two adult and two child admissions to the Canadian Museum of Nature. The pass includes the Hidden Life of Ants exhibit and regular exhibits but some special exhibits and movies may have additional fees.
  2. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post telling me whether you think ants are creepy or cool.
  3. Everyone who “likes” Postcards from the Mothership on Facebook will get a bonus entry. (This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.) If you already like Postcards from the Mothership on FB, just say so in your comment.
  4. This giveaway is open only to Canadian residents, excluding residents of Quebec. (sorry!)
  5. This giveaway will run until 11:59 pm EDT on Wednesday July 31, 2013.
  6. One winner will be chosen at random from all comments posted.
  7. If you win, you must be willing to provide your full name and contact information to me to share with the agent of the Canadian Museum of Nature that is organizing the giveaway.

Special thanks to the Museum of Nature for the great morning of fun, for the free family pass they gave to us and for the free family pass to give away!

Edited to add: Thanks and congratulations to Suze, winner of the family pass. Enjoy the museum!! 🙂

Ottawa Family Fun: Peddle Boats on Dow’s Lake

For years I’ve been meaning to check out the boat rentals at Dow’s Lake. I rented a canoe once a million years ago, maybe before Beloved and I even met, but ever since we’ve had kids I’ve been thinking about going back and renting a peddle boat or two and splashing around the Canal. I had visions of happy, smiling kids burning off their excess energy, of close-up encounters with ducks and whatever creatures live in the lake, of sunshine and water and summertime joy.

Uh huh.

So my advice to you is that this is a really fun and relatively inexpensive excursion, with a couple of caveats. First, do not go on the hottest day of the summer, and do not delude yourself that going early in the day will make a difference. We went a week ago last Sunday, and it was sweltering even at 10 o’clock in the morning. You may also want to avoid 11-year-olds who get surly over wearing a lifejacket, and 9-year-olds who decide they’re too tired to pedal after the first 10 minutes. And be aware that despite what the people at the rental desk are calling to you from the deck, the rudder may be so finicky that you get stuck turning in counterclockwise circles about every 10 minutes, thus impeding your egress from the harbour, elevating your already elevated body temperature and perhaps adding to the overall surliness in your pedal boat.

Once you master the finicky rudder, however, you may be rewarded by close encounters with ducks after all.

Pedal boating at Dow's Lake

And playing a gentle game of bumper boats will go a long way to restoring everyone’s equilibrium.

Pedal boating at Dow's Lake

And if you stop pedalling and just put your feet up for a few minutes, it’s not so infernally hot after all.

Pedal boating at Dow's Lake

Despite the heat and the elevated risk of crankiness, we all ended up having a good — but short — time. We’d rented two boats for an hour and I don’t think we lasted 45 minutes — but we also barely made it around to the edge of the arboretum and back. (Given the number of circles we turned trying to master the rudder, had we simply pedaled straight I’m pretty sure we could have made it most of the way to the NAC. And back.) It was an affordable little adventure at $15 per boat per hour, and $3.50 for parking across the street. Now that I know Lucas is old enough to sit still, I think next time we’ll go for a canoe instead of a peddle boat. And maybe choose a day where the mercury tops out under 35C.

If you go:
Dow’s Lake summer rentals:

  • Canoe, kayak and peddle boat rentals, starting at $15 per hour
  • A $20 deposit and government-issued ID required
  • Open 7 days a week (WEATHER PERMITTING), beginning after the water reaches navigation levels in May, until the Thanksgiving weekend in October. The hours vary with the seasons and also with the weather.
  • See website for additional details